Capital One 2011 Annual Report Download - page 36

To protect our systems and technologies, we employ security, backup and recovery systems and generally require
the same of our third-party service providers. In addition, we perform, or cause to be performed, a variety of
vulnerability and penetration testing on the platforms, systems and applications used to provide our products and
services in an effort to ensure that any attacks on these platforms, systems and applications are unlikely to
succeed. To date, to our knowledge, we have not been targeted with a direct, material cyber attack. We do not
believe that the direct attacks we have seen have resulted in outside entities successfully penetrating our security
controls.
Intellectual Property
As part of our overall and ongoing strategy to protect and enhance our intellectual property, we rely on a variety
of protections, including copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents and certain restrictions on disclosure,
solicitation, and competition. We also undertake other measures to control access to and distribution of our other
proprietary information. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for a third party to copy or otherwise
obtain and use certain intellectual property or proprietary information without authorization. Our precautions
may not prevent misappropriation or infringement of our intellectual property or proprietary information. In
addition, our competitors and other third parties also file patent applications for innovations that are used in our
industry. The ability of our competitors and other third parties to obtain such patents may adversely affect our
ability to compete. Conversely, our ability to obtain such patents may increase our competitive advantage. There
can be no assurance that we will be successful in such efforts, or that the ability of our competitors to obtain such
patents may not adversely impact our financial results.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
From time to time, we have made and will make forward-looking statements, including those that discuss, among
other things, strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; projections, revenues, income, expenses,
capital measures, returns, accruals for claims in litigation and for other claims against us; earnings per share or
other financial measures for us; future financial and operating results; our plans, objectives, expectations and
intentions; the projected impact and benefits of the acquisition of ING Direct (the “ING Direct Transaction”) and
the pending acquisition of HSBC’s U.S. credit card business (the “HSBC Transaction” and, with the ING Direct
Transaction, the “Transactions”); and the assumptions that underlie these matters.
To the extent that any such information is forward-looking, it is intended to fit within the safe harbor for forward-
looking information provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Numerous factors could
cause our actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements, including,
among other things:
• general economic and business conditions in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and our local markets, including
conditions affecting employment levels, interest rates, consumer income and confidence, spending and
savings that may affect consumer bankruptcies, defaults, charge-offs and deposit activity;
• an increase or decrease in credit losses (including increases due to a worsening of general economic
conditions in the credit environment);
• the possibility that regulatory and other approvals and conditions to the HSBC Transaction are not obtained
or satisfied on a timely basis or at all;
• the possibility that modifications to the terms of the HSBC Transaction may be required in order to obtain or
satisfy such approvals or conditions;
• the possibility that we will not receive third-party consents necessary to fully realize the anticipated benefits
of the HSBC Transaction;
• the possibility that we may not fully realize the projected cost savings and other projected benefits of the
Transactions;
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